Norwich ― One year after approving a five-year electricity discount for new large users, Norwich Public Utilities has enhanced that discount for its highest new electricity customers that qualify for the benefit.

The change, approved Tuesday by the Board of Public Utilities Commissioners, shrinks the five-year discount to three years, providing a company with greater utility savings as it faces other high start-up capital costs. The total amount of the utility savings remains the same, just distributed over a condensed time frame, Jeff Brining, NPU customer service division manager, told the board.

The new three-year Large Customer Economic Development Rate will apply to new customers consuming 5 megawatts of electricity per year or larger. The five-year Economic Development Rate approved a year ago applies to customers using 100,000 kilowatts ― one tenth of a megawatt ― or more of electricity per year.

A chart Brining provided the commissioners showed the real application of the new rate for power usage anticipated by the new Solar Seal architectural glass panels manufacturer now moving into the former Lightolier building at 40 Wisconsin Ave. in the Norwich business park. The company recently changed its name to Naverra and plans to begin manufacturing large panel architectural glass later this year.

Under the five-year plan, the company’s electricity savings would have started at $505,756 in the first year, with the savings slowly declining to $101,432 by the fifth year, for a total discount of $1,517,268 over the five-year period.

With the new three-year plan, the company’s first-year discount would be $758,634, dropping to $505,756 in the second year and $252,878 in the final year, for the same total savings of $1,517,268.

NPU General Manager Chris LaRose said NPU would not start the discount until Naverra is running at full capacity in the fourth quarter of 2022 or in early 2023.

Naverra would be the first to take advantage of the new economic development incentive rate, but the city is also working to develop a second business park in the Occum area, potentially using the new top user discount to attract major companies to the area.

Norwich also is marketing itself strongly to recreational cannabis cultivators, large users of electricity and water. LaRose told the utilities board he would not expect cannabis cultivators to reach the 5-megawatt threshold for the three-year discount, but he would expect them to qualify for the five-year discount rate.

The short-term electricity rate discount is not the only incentive Norwich offered to Solar Seal-Naverra to ease the company’s move from Massachusetts to the formerly vacant Lightolier building.

The City Council in July approved using $1.05 million in the city’s American Rescue Plan Act grant for a grant and loan package to the company to assist with start-up costs. The package included a $350,000 grant and two short-term, no-interest loans of $350,000 each. The first loan is payable to the city in full by Sept. 1, 2023, and the second loan is payable in full by Sept. 1, 2024.

At the time the package was approved, Jeff Heintz, senior vice president for the company, said the city’s assistance will help the company rapidly gear up to start production by this fall and to immediately place equipment orders for a planned expansion to meet growing demand.

For NPU, Naverra is expected to replace the loss two years ago of one of the city-owned utility’s largest customers, the former Freeport McMoRan Copper Products manufacturing plant. LaRose told the commission Tuesday that the copper company used about 6.5 megawatts of power at its peak, and about 4 megawatts shortly before the shutdown.

c.bessette@theday.com